History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 93: Zhenhai Mutiny
【Zhenhai Mutiny】

When Huang Chao was causing chaos in the Central Plains, bandits were rampant in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas. The central government was powerless and local officials were helpless. As a result, Liu Chao occupied Changshu, Wang Ao occupied Kunshan, Wang Teng occupied Huating, Song Kefu occupied Wuxi... There were numerous big bandits and small bandits. The bandits were intertwined and there were also many fights and attacks. The people suffered and lived in misery.

Zhou Bao, the governor of Zhenhai, was ordered to organize militia and recruit soldiers on his own to protect the territory and the people.

Zhou Bao recruited soldiers in Hangzhou and organized them into eight independent regiments, which were sent to various counties to guard the city. These were the famous "Eight Commands of Hangzhou", of which the most famous was "Shijing Command". Its commander was Dong Chang, and there was also an outstanding general named Qian Liu in the regiment. The story of Dong Chang and Qian Liu will be described in detail later.

The "Eight Capitals of Hangzhou" fought bravely and quickly disintegrated and defeated the bandit forces, thus restoring stability in the region.

Huang Chao invaded Chang'an, and the emperor fled to Shu, ordering all the troops to rise up and fight for the emperor. Zhou Bao was filled with grief and indignation, and spent a huge amount of money to build the "Jueshengdu" special operations corps, preparing to go to Beijing to fight for the emperor. Because "Jueshengdu" was stationed in the back building of the mansion, the people called it "Houloudu", and the history books also recorded it as "Houloudu", so this book also followed the crowd and called it "Houloudu" in the following text.

Zhou Bao has poured a lot of effort and money into "Hou Lou Du". It is the elite among the elite and the ace among aces.

Just when Zhou Bao was ready to go to the capital to make achievements, he received an invitation from Gao Pian to join forces.

Zhou Bao and Gao Pian are like brothers. They have similar backgrounds, both of them are "Nth generation generals". Several generations of their ancestors were famous generals in the Tang Dynasty, and many of them were granted titles of kings and marquises. They are of similar age, and grew up together in a military compound as childhood friends, classmates, and friends. When they were young, they served in the same imperial guards, and are good colleagues and close friends.

He thought he could face the national crisis hand in hand with Gao Pian, but he didn't expect that this was a Hongmen Banquet set by Gao Pian, in which he wanted to trick Zhou Bao into death and annex the Zhenhai Army. Fortunately, Zhou Bao discovered it in time and saved him from death. The two broke up completely.

After failing to trick Zhou Bao to death, Gao Pian tried to trick Dong Chang, the leader of the "Hangzhou Eight Capitals" and the "Shijing Capital", to death. However, Dong Chang was saved from the murder due to the reminder of his subordinate Qian Liu.

Although Gao Pian failed to cause any substantial damage to the Zhenhai Army, Zhou Bao did not dare to leave the town to defend the king.

Zhou Baokong had a sincere heart to serve his country but had no place to vent it. He watched Huang Chao poison Chang'an, feeling depressed. He could only use wine, sex and feasting to relieve his depression. From then on, he stopped caring about state affairs and spent his days in debauchery, pleasures and debauchery... In short, he indulged in depravity.

If the Zhenhai War Zone is regarded as an independent kingdom, then Zhou Bao is the incompetent ruler who ignores state affairs and indulges in debauchery, "Hou Loudu" is the arrogant imperial guards who have no way to defend against the enemy and are good at disturbing the people, and "Hangzhou Badu" is the separatist warlord. Zhenhai Zhou Bao will rehearse a pocket version of "The Downfall of the Empire".

Zhou Bao entrusted the command of "Hou Lou Du" to "Prince" Zhou Yu. The prince grew up in a large mansion, was pampered, weak and incompetent, and could not control the arrogant and unruly "Hou Lou Du" at all, causing this arrogant army to gradually get out of control.

Even so, he could not hand over the military power to outsiders. Zhou Bao only trusted his own son.

In addition, Zhou Bao also appointed his son-in-law Yang Maoshi as the governor of Suzhou. There is heaven above and Suzhou and Hangzhou below. Yang Maoshi imposed heavy taxes in Suzhou, and the people were resentful. Tian Lingzi sent Zhao Zai to replace Yang Maoshi, but the father-in-law and son-in-law disobeyed the order and refused to accept Zhao Zai. Later, Li Yan proclaimed himself emperor and ordered the whole country to hunt down Tian Yan's party, so Zhou Bao obeyed the "order" and killed Zhao Zai.

Zhou Bao has completely turned evil.

Finally, his general Zhang Yu launched a rebellion and captured Changzhou. Zhou Bao sent Ding Congshi to suppress the rebellion. Zhang Yu was defeated and fled to Hailing, where he attached himself to Gao Ba (a general under Gao Pian), the commander of Hailing. Ding Congshi took advantage of the situation and occupied Changzhou.

At this time, Zhou Bao had lost control of the army, and the "emperor" was facing the dilemma of "warlord separatism". Ding Congshi, who occupied Changzhou, was just a minor character, and was nothing compared to Dong Chang, the "Stone Mirror Capital".

Dong Chang openly expelled the court officials, appointed himself as the governor of Hangzhou, and ruled the area around Hangzhou. Later, he annexed the famous bandit Liu Hanhong and was promoted to the title of "Jiedushi of Yisheng Army", almost on par with Zhou Bao.

Dong Chang appointed Qian Liu as the governor of Hangzhou, and Zhou Bao was forced to accept and adopt a policy of appeasement.

Zhou Bao felt that his authority and control were gradually declining, but he did not wake up and reform in time. Instead, he went further and further down the wrong path.

Zhou Bao doubly favored his personal guard "Hou Lou Du", and built a new outer city of more than 20 miles, and also built an official residence. He thought that Runzhou (the headquarters of Zhenhai Army) was now impregnable and he could rest easy.

The heavy labor made the people miserable, and the unfair military supply also caused complaints from officers and soldiers in other units. Zhou Bao's situation became even more dangerous.

At a banquet, the staff told Zhou Bao worriedly that the troops were already full of complaints and the commander could not sit idly by. Zhou Bao glared and said, "Anyone who dares to cause trouble will be killed without mercy!"

Superstition about violence is the tipping point of all incompetent rulers and foolish generals.

One of the aides, Xue Lang, secretly leaked this to his good friend, General Liu Hao, meaning that he should restrain his subordinates and not run into trouble, as Marshal Zhou wanted to make an example of him and make an example of him.

Don't be afraid of not doing good things, just be afraid of not having good people.

Xue Lang's original intention was to make Liu Hao behave himself so as to avoid any misfortune. However, his intention was misunderstood and misinterpreted.

Liu Hao was filled with grief and indignation, saying that we have tried our best to assist the Marshal, but have not received the trust we deserve. We live in fear all the time, trembling and treading on thin ice, afraid that we will encounter unexpected disasters due to a little thing. Now, I am afraid we have no choice but to give it a try. If we don’t explode in silence, we will perish in silence!

That night, Zhou Bao was drunk and sleeping soundly. Liu Hao led his troops to launch a sudden mutiny and set fire to Zhou Bao's official residence.

Zhou Bao was half sober. He jumped out of bed, ran barefoot to the back door of the official residence, and called his "back building commander" to come to the rescue.

However, Zhou Bao was extremely surprised to find that "Hou Lou Du" was also involved in the rebellion.

At this time, the city was ablaze with flames, as bright as day, and the sound of weapons clashing and fighting resounded through the sky. Zhou Bao looked up to the sky and sighed, "Those who obey my orders are my soldiers; otherwise, they are bandits! My Zhenhai Army has a vast territory, where can't we find shelter? Alas——"

Zhou Bao led his family and fled to Changzhou on foot to seek refuge with his old subordinate Ding Congshi.

Liu Hao hunted down and killed Zhou Bao's staff in Runzhou City, and took away Zhou Bao's mountains of treasures for himself.

When Zhou Bao arrived in Changzhou, he summoned the "Hou Lou Du" in an attempt to restore the city. However, not a single soldier from the "Hou Lou Du" showed up.

At the end of the same year, Zhou Bao died of illness in Hangzhou at the age of seventy-four.

When Zhou Bao was young, he was also a ruthless man like Xiahou Dun. During the military examination, one of the items was "hitting felt on horseback". During the competition, an accident occurred and one of Zhou Bao's eyes was hooked out by an iron hook. Zhou Bao then swallowed the eyeball that protruded out of the socket, and then continued to hit the felt, and finally won the first place.

The emperor gave him a wooden fake eyeball, which was said to be so real that no one knew what kind of wood it was made of.

One morning, Zhou Bao accidentally dropped his wooden eye into the basin while washing, and the maid beside him burst into laughter. Zhou Bao was furious and killed him. Like Li Keyong, he hated people making fun of his eyes.

When Zhou Bao encountered a mutiny and fled to Changzhou in a panic, he received a gift from his old friend Gao Pian. At that moment, Zhou Bao was still in shock and lost his soul. He was so moved that he burst into tears holding the gift from his old friend. It is true that a friend in need is a friend indeed.

When he opened the package, he found a bag of powder inside. It turned out that Gao Pian was implying that he would be turned into powder. Sarcasm +1.

There was also a letter attached, which read "I'm giving you a song called "Liangliang"", sarcasm +2.

"I sent you thousands of miles away, you deserve it..." Sarcasm +3, critical hit.

Zhou Bao threw the package to the ground, raised his halberd and pointed it in the direction of Yangzhou, cursing: "Gao Pian, you have a Lu Yongzhi, and we don't know who will be more miserable in the future, just wait and see!"

(End of this chapter)